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RATT: New Audio Interview With BOBBY BLOTZER

On October 20, Twisted Rose magazine’s Angie conducted an interview with RATT drummer Bobby Blotzer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Twisted Rose: What is RATT is up to nowadays and is there anything you can tell us about plans with the band?

Blotzer: Well, you know, we’re taking the… I shouldn’t say we, [because] I was not in the mood for a hiatus, but certain people wanted to take a little time off. And I suspected that that was… that it be not through the whole year, because we haven’t played for a year now. However, we are just now communicating and about to step into a rehearsal room and start working up some stuff and see what comes out of it. You know, our record company, Roadrunner, has picked up the option for another record. So I pretty much assume that we will be presenting each other’s material and working that up and hopefully booking some shows to do in the beginning of the year to get a little warmed up. Then head out on the road for next summer. . . For me, I was contemplating on joining up with something to do musically and put something together or join something existing, but there was no decision made that we weren’t going to tour, so I was apprehensive [about] doing that. And then, in typical RATT fashion, at the last moment everyone said, “OK, let’s go, we gotta book gigs.” So I decided just to crank out my entrepreneurial interests and start up some things so that’s where I am at right now.

Twisted Rose: Your last CD [“Infestation”], you could tell it was RATT from the beginning ’till the end. What made you guys stick to that sound?

Blotzer: Well, I mean it’s not something purposefully done, as far as, you know, when we met… I mean, it wasn’t that we initiated and wanted to capture or wanted to kind of [go] retro, back [to] the more raw EP and “Out of the Cellar” kind of feeling, you know, which is not hard to do. I mean, from my end of things, I was writing my songs, lots of songs, what’s in my head and what I feel, and I figured I would get in at six or seven songs so. A couple made it and [Stephen Pearcy] changed around my lyrics and melodies, which I wasn’t married to (inaudible) and he did a great job and so did Elvis Baskette, our producer, and the record subsequently came out sounding like something that really could have comfortably fit between, say, “Invasion” and “Out Of The Cellar” or the EP and “Out Of The Cellar” ya know, I think right in that route. So it’s just one of those things that just clicked. It was a pretty quick production rehearsal. I think we worked about three weeks and worked up about 22 songs. We picked 13 to record and off we went. I did my tracks on the record in less than four days. So I was pretty focused I had a good time doing it and I enjoyed the record. It was received very well around the world. It was nice to hear how it was selling.

Twisted Rose: What is the difference between touring nowadays compared to back in the day?

Blotzer: Well, there is definitely a calmer vibe out there on the road as far as things that we do after the show and that kind of thing. There’s not as much partying going on and that kind of thing. Warren [DeMartini] and Stephen are completely non-drinkers and that kind of thing now. People are a little more mellowed out and so I mean I think, personally I think everyone is playing great and basically I think we do what we do and that’s what it is. We have not reinvented the wheel, I think. We just tightened the nuts and bolts up a little and the talk of the next thing we do is to dive a little deeper into album tracks and not just stick to the video songs, because, I don’t know… We’ve done, like, 23 videos or something like that. To really pick from that pond of songs and I personally love the songs, but I want different stuff. I’ve really been on the guys about being more open-minded to play different stuff that we never play or haven’t played since decades or whatever, ya know what I mean?

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